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After a day brimming with manga events, evening had draped its heavy shadow over the village of Konohagakure, yet the Hokage's office had not yet tasted rest.
Inside, the air was thick with the smell of tobacco drifting from Sarutobi Hiruzen's pipe.
He sat behind his massive wooden desk, surrounded by stacks of papers that no longer held his attention the way those eight open volumes before him did.
The dim light of the oil lamp reflected off the volumes' covers, from the first, which bore the image of that troublesome blond-haired boy, Uzumaki Naruto, all the way to the eighth, which had ended at the peak of Sakura and Ino's confrontation.
Hiruzen stared at the sequence of events with eyes heavy with experience and worry. He had read every page carefully, analyzed every piece of dialogue, and studied every jutsu technique that had appeared in those "future" pages so far.
"From Naruto the outcast… to the Chunin Exams… to the unknown plot off Orochimaru ," Hiruzen murmured under his breath, his fingers trembling slightly as they traced over the image of Orochimaru in the sixth volume.
"Everything holds together in a terrifyingly logical way. The characters, the motives, even the techniques that haven't been invented yet in our time."
From a shadowed corner of the room came a voice that was cold and cutting, a voice no one could mistake.
"None of this makes sense, Hiruzen."
Danzo Shimura stood there, leaning on his cane, his eyes gleaming with an unreadable light in the darkness. Fortunately for him, at this point in time, he still had both of his eyes, unlike the future that would be revealed later in the manga.
Danzo took a step toward the light, continuing: "If this truly is the future, then the very act of our reading it may have changed everything completely. Revealing the secret is killing it. Orochimaru, for example, would never dare to repeat in our reality what he planned in the manga. He's been exposed now, his schemes are nothing but burned paper."
Hiruzen nodded slowly, setting his pipe aside.
"I agree with you, Danzo. Knowledge is the most powerful weapon, but it is also the most dangerous trap. The course was already altered the moment we walked into that shop."
He turned toward the other advisors, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, who sat in silence, watching the exchange. "What do you two think?"
Koharu spoke in a measured tone. "Danzo is right. We cannot treat this manga as a history book, but rather as a map of possibilities that have already been aborted. We must be cautious, Orochimaru may now shift his strategy to something far more cunning, knowing that we are aware of his intentions."
Homura added, his eyes half-closed behind his glasses, "The priority now is to protect the village from within. The manga revealed vulnerabilities in our security, and we must seal them before any enemy, Orochimaru or otherwise, thinks to exploit them."
After a few moments of deliberate silence, Danzo rose and prepared to leave, but he paused at the door and turned back toward Hiruzen.
"There is one thing I very much want to see," he said, his tone carrying a blend of challenge and curiosity.
"I want to see what Orochimaru does in the manga next. Will he keep displaying his hostility toward Konoha? Or will he try to retreat now that he has had his way with Sasuke? At that point, I will decide how to deal with him, and with his 'roots,' which haven't appeared in the manga yet."
Danzo left, leaving Hiruzen to stare once more at the volumes, fully aware that the peace they lived in now was nothing more than the calm before a storm whose pages had yet to be written.
After all, the Orochimaru of today was still his student.
…
Miles away, deep in the heart of the barren desert, the scene played out differently inside the Kazekage's office in the village of Sunagakure.
The Third Kazekage, Saburou no Shazan, sat with his most trusted advisors, Elder Chiyo and her brother Ebizo. Of course, they were not alone; the room was filled with a select group of the village's shinobi figures.
On the desk, the eight volumes were scattered open, but the focus was not on Konoha, it was on those characters bearing the Sand insignia.
"Gaara… Kankuro… Temari…" Shazan read the names aloud, his voice filled with astonishment.
"These kids are Suna's future… I still find myself wondering each time, why does Gaara in the manga look like a merciless beast?"
Chiyo narrowed her eyes. "The manga has given barely tangible hints that Gaara is the jinchuriki of Shukaku. But in our time, Gaara has not yet been born, nor have Temari and Kankuro, since they are siblings and obviously share the same parents. This means we are looking at a vision of a future we can still shape."
"We could even prevent them from existing altogether… just as anyone could attempt to prevent them from existing in the future, simply by uncovering who their parents are."
Ebizo added, gesturing toward the jonin figure leading the Sand team in the manga, "And this man… their mentor. His name hasn't been mentioned yet, and we have no idea who he is in our current reality. Is he one of the rising shinobi? Or is he someone we will appoint later?"
The Third Kazekage was equally curious.
"The only jonin who has appeared so far from our village, when his name is eventually mentioned, he should be given special attention, given the potential he will have. He must be a kid at the Academy right now."
"Let's not forget that the next volume may reveal the leaders of the participating villages in the Chunin Exams, including our own future Kazekage. I can barely wait for the next update."
The Kazekage's office buzzed with military analysis as Suna had already begun reassessing its strategies based on the depicted future, fully aware that the sands of fate had begun shifting in unexpected directions.
…
In the Art Store, quiet had settled after the last of the readers had departed.
Rob sat behind his desk, a smile that wouldn't leave his face as he watched the numbers climbing on his personal screen.
"Art coins… this month's earnings are fairly good," Rob muttered, rubbing his hands together with renewed delight.
His interest in money wasn't purely about accumulating wealth, he knew that every coin he earned was a step toward reinforcing his position in this world full of dangers.
Rob opened the interface of his personal system store and began browsing the available items.
Madara Uchiha… Black Zetsu… Kaguya Otsutsuki… He turned the names over in his mind, names no one in this era had heard yet, except for the Ghost of Uchiha who was considered a fallen legend at present.
"The manga they're reading now is just the beginning. The real dangers lurk in the shadows, and in outer space, where the Otsutsuki clan lies in wait. Those events are still far off in the future…"
Rob knew that revealing the future to people would create a butterfly effect, events would shift, enemies would grow more cautious. But that was precisely what made drawing and publishing the manga so thrilling.
When the future being shaped became murky, he would be the only one capable of shaping it as he saw fit.
But to do that, the Art Store alone was not enough, even the power he gained by summoning one of the mightiest beings from other worlds was not enough. He had to grow stronger by continuously reinforcing himself. When he became strong enough, he would be qualified to set the course of this new future.
"I have to be prepared. It's not enough to be a shopkeeper, I must be the force that ensures this world doesn't collapse."
He began calculating the cost of some items and legendary weapons. Unfortunately, his store did not sell skills.
"Maybe one of the Eternal Stones? Or perhaps the Rinnegan? No, I need to start with something that grants me absolute immunity first. Early preparation is the key to survival."
As he tallied his earnings, Rob was planning a future that extended far beyond the manga's pages, a future in which he would be the hidden player pulling the strings of fate from behind the curtain.
…
A full week had passed since the end of Volume Eight, and enthusiasm across the hidden villages had not cooled, it had only blazed higher with the airing of Episode Three of the anime.
In Konoha, the large screen above the art store was showing Episode Three, which covered the formation of Team Seven and their first confrontation with Kakashi, and it was on everyone's lips.
"It feels like they're being filmed from an invisible angle, is that what anime means?!" one young shinobi shouted.
"The fights look so real, and the music… it makes your blood boil!"
And it wasn't only Konoha. In Kumogakure, Kirigakure, and even Iwagakure, the Art Stores were seeing an unprecedented crowd.
The anime had added a new dimension to the manga, the colors, the sounds, the emotions pulsing with life made everyone feel as though they were living inside the story.
"Did you see how Kakashi tested Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura?" asked a ninja from Iwagakure as he debated with his companions.
"The concept of teamwork that Kakashi laid out… it's a lesson we all need to learn here."
"I still remember that from the manga… it really is something remarkable."
Across all five great villages, people had begun talking during and after each episode, exchanging theories. The anime was no longer merely entertainment, it had become a cultural bridge linking villages that had long been at each other's throats.
Everyone was waiting for the next episode.
Everyone was asking themselves: if the anime was this breathtaking, what would happen when they reached the Chunin Exam events they had already read in the manga?
The excitement was building, and fate was weaving its threads at a stunning pace, transforming the shinobi world into one vast stage for a future that had begun taking shape before their very eyes, episode by episode, page by page.
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Upcoming chapter titles (spoilers):
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Chapter 168: Ancient Family Grudges?
Chapter 169: More Girls' Battles?
Chapter 170: Doesn't Shikamaru Resemble Me Greatly?
Chapter 171: Shikamaru's Intelligence and Naruto's Battle!
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